Pro Cycling

La Tropicale Amissa Bongo

WorldTour teams compete against Africa’s top riders in the continent’s biggest stage race

james startt

(Photo by Racers cross the Equator from the northern to the southern hemisphere during Stage 6 of La Tropicale Amissa Bongo. (James Startt))

(Libreville, Gabon) – Le Jazé, a new mix of Gabon’s R&B and African music, booms from massive stereo speakers in downtown Oyen, a town in northern Gabon, as the town’s schoolchildren roar in rhythmic unison. It’s show time for La Tropicale Amissa Bongo, Africa’s biggest international bicycle race. And like every morning, race announcers incite local kids as well as the occasional cyclist to break down and dance. Decidedly, La Tropicale is a bike race like no other.

Since its humble beginnings in 2006 as little more than an exhibition, La Tropicale Amissa Bongo is now a weeklong stage race. Rated 2.1 by the International Cycling Union, it offers the same ranking points as more established events like France’s Four Days of Dunkirk or Portugal’s Tour of Algarve. Race organizers see it as much more than a traditional bike race, but quite frankly it could hardly be anything less.

“Since the beginning, the Gabonese government wanted to create a great bike race in Africa with a nod to the Tour de France, so we strived to bring together teams from the Tour de France with the top African teams,” race director Philippe Crépel told Bicycling on the plane that carried European teams to Libreville for the start. “Because of our UCI status we could invite as many as eight WorldTour teams, but that is not what we are about. Instead I think we have the right balance with four Tour de France teams, two African professional teams, and the best African national teams. It’s a good mix.”

For Crépel, “balance” is the key word. “For the professionals I want there to be a balance between good racing and good adventure, because clearly they will see things here they have never seen before. And then I want the racing itself to be balanced.”

Throughout the week of racing, European and African riders constantly evened out the standing. While many of the early stages came down to a sprint, as the race continued, so did the difficulty. Monsoon-like rains transformed the race on the 190-kilometer Stage 5 and bike-handling skills were a premium. “It was crazy,” said Belgian Fréderique Robert, who scored his second stage win at the finish in Mouila. “Behind me, I just heard crashes around every corner!”

The pivotal stage, however, came the following day in a 147-kilometer stage from Lambarene—home of historic Nobel Prize winner Albert Schweitzer—to Kango. A large break formed early in the race when it became clear that the Lampre-Merida team could no longer control the race after riding at the front for days in the African heat to protect the yellow jersey of their sprinter, Andrea Palini.

Europcar’s Yohan Gene took the overall lead—which he’d hold through the last stage—after winning Stage 6 in a fight to the line with Moroccan revelation Soufiane Haddi. “I couldn’t believe how strong Haddi was,” said Frenchman Adrien Petit, the winner of Stage 4. “He was in all the moves all week long. But then the level was very good all around. The Eritreans were very strong as were the Algerians and Moroccans.”

“Competition is always fierce here,” said Jean-René Bernadeau, director of Team Europcar. “There is fierce competition between the African teams to be the best on the continent and the racing is very open, very hard to control.”

Bernadeau has brought teams to Gabon for the past six years and has seen a big difference in the level of racing. “The Africans have just really improved immensely. Before there was always a bunch that got dropped on the first climb. They don’t get dropped anymore.”

“The African riders have definitely gone up a notch with the Eritreans and Ethiopians and the MTN-Qhubeka Pro Continental team,” said Jock Boyer, an American Tour de France pioneer who now heads the Rwanda team. “And this race is big for them because they can compare themselves to Europeans.”

Since World War II Eritrea has been Africa's most passionate cycling nation. They led the team classification for two stages before finishing sixth. (James Startt)

Africans, who have long possessed a wealth of untapped talent, have made steady gains in the bike-racing category. But top European cyclists are making different kinds of gains in the weeklong African experience. “I’m seeing things here that I never imagined,” said Cofidis racer Arnaud Labbe just before the start of Stage 2, when La Tropicale made a brief visit to Cameroon. “We pass in the middle of dense jungle. We see animals being sold along the roadside. It’s total culture shock.”

“We really didn’t know what to expect before we came,” said Lotto-Belisol director Jean-Pierre Heynderickx. “But already guys are saying, ‘I want to come back next year!'” As a professional in the 1990s Heynderickx raced in the inaugural Tour of China in 1995, so he was eager to give his riders a similar experience. “It’s funny. We prepared them for the worst. We even came equipped with mosquito nets but soon realized that we didn’t need them. We came with special food, but we haven’t opened it. But I’m really glad that we accepted the invitation. It’s a really great opportunity for the riders, and the welcome is just great!”